Hi-Line Living: Fun, food and SCHOLARSHIPS

When Cayeveoon "Paco" Jones received a scholarship to Montana State University-Northern, it was a big deal.

Jones, a senior from Oklahoma City, majors in health promotion and plays for the Northern Lights basketball team. He said he has more college education than anyone in his family and will be the first to graduate from college.

"It is not just big for me, but for my family on down the road," Jones said. "I just appreciate the scholarship and everything I put into it and everything everyone else put into it once I got here."

Gabe Porter. a senior from Walla Walla, Washington, is also the recipient of a basketball scholarship and studies health promotion.

"My mom's a single parent and stuff, so she raised (me and) three of my older brothers," Porter said. "So it's very fortunate that I get the opportunity to go play college basketball and get an education at the same time."

Jones, Porter and some of their fellow athletes helped raise money for such scholarships Saturday when they volunteered at the Northern Alumni Foundation's annual Alumni Auction.

The fundraiser consists of an all-you-can-eat dinner, open bar, games, a live auction, a silent auction and a Chinese auction. All money goes to athletic and academic scholarships for Northern students.

Jim Bennett, executive director of the foundation, said the Chinese auction is the centerpiece of the night's activities.

In the Chinese auction, a timer is set as Northern athletes and other students with numbered paddles scour the crowd for people who want to bid on an item. A person interested in bidding on an item will hand a volunteer a dollar. The volunteer will then hold up the paddle on behalf of the bidder until the number is called by the auctioneer.

Then the paddle is lowered and to get it raised again the person has to bid another dollar.

The last number called before the timer goes off wins the item.

As the timer ticks away, people laugh and shout as volunteers wave their paddles and feverishly collect dollars that they stuff in their aprons.

"It is loud, it's exciting and it's fun for the crowd to be a part of it, and everyone gets to be a part of it," Bennett said.

"It's a good time," said Pauline Cronk, a longtime member of the Alumni board. "They party hearty a little bit and the more they party the more they spend."

"It's just like a little Las Vegas," she added.

Bennett said that for only a dollar people can leave the event with something that is worth a lot more.

Bennett said about 40 students, mostly athletes, and about 15 alumni volunteer for the event - most for the Chinese auction.

The event is a community affair.

Students from the wrestling team, basketball teams, the MSU-Northern Collegiate Stockgrowers Association and the Associated Students of Montana State University-Northern government were among the groups helping collect money.

Businesses and individuals both locally and statewide are extremely supportive of the annual fundraiser in their donation of items for the auctions, Bennett said.

Donations range from vacation packages to promotional items, antiques, baked goods, themed gift baskets, gift cards and services from businesses.

Some people donate dinner parties. This year, for example, Bennett donated a prime rib and whiskey dinner for six. An Asian dinner for 12 at the Havre Historic Post office and the chance for a cruise on Fresno Reservoir were also up for bid.

Bennett, members of the Northern Alumni Foundation Board and Northern Chancellor Greg Kegel could not say exactly what year the auction began, but all of them said it was at least 20 or 30 years ago.

Alumni Board member Patsy Divish said the first year the event was held it was held in the lower level of the Atrium Mall. Rather than local businesses, it was Alumni themselves who donated items they had lying around their homes.

"We didn't really go the businesses," Divish said.

However, as the fundraiser became a tradition, businesses began donating items and many do so regularly.

"The donors are just marvelous," Cronk said. "I have a list of people I see every year and they expect me. So when I walk in they say, 'Hi, Paulette,' and they have already figured out what they are going to donate."

When the Atrium was no longer spacious enough to accommodate the attendees, the event was moved to Donaldson Hall Commons, before eventually being held in the Student Union Building Ballroom.

Bennett said the amount of money the event raises has increased steadily and now stands at $18,000 to $20,000 a year.

The money raised allows the foundation to provide one scholarship for each of Northern's eight sports teams, he said, and academic scholarships. That includes the deans of Northern's College of Technical Science and College of Education, Arts and Sciences and Nursing each award a scholarship to a student in their departments.

Scholarships also are awarded to a nontraditional student, a single parent and a graduate student, and a scholarship in fine arts is now offered to students in Northern's graphic design program or who take part in other artistic pursuits such as the community choir.

With the cost of tuition rising, the more important scholarships become in recruiting and retaining students, Bennett said.

"A thousand-dollar scholarship could mean the difference between going to school and not being able to go to school for someone," he said

Ryden Fu, a freshman from Washington who received a wrestling scholarship stood off to the side as he waited for the Chinese auction to begin.

He said the wrestling team and world-class diesel technology program were what drew him to Northern. But, Fu added, the scholarship was a factor in his decision.

"It was kind of a decision-maker for me," he said.

The place Northern holds in the area is one of the reasons the event is such a success, Cronk said.

"Havre loves its school and just sort of everything runs around it," she said.